


Desert Night

by Little_Firestar84



Category: Less (Books & Literature)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-11
Updated: 2018-09-11
Packaged: 2019-07-11 03:07:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15963404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Little_Firestar84/pseuds/Little_Firestar84
Summary: In the desert, among the cacophony of music, Less turns fifty...





	Desert Night

As Bedouin music resounds in the air (no, Less will never, ever admitthat it brought back memories of Freddy, not even on his death bed),Less gets up from the richly embroidered cushions and walks out into the dark.

This small madness, just like his trademark blue suit, cost him a small fortune. The Pulitzer money is nothing but a distant memory nowadays, and Less knows that, until his beloved agent will give him some good news, he’ll likely have to live with less than the essential- and prey not to have some medical emergency (and that the fact that no one showed at the last Evening with Arthur Less wasn’t a bad omen).

In the warm Sahara night, the powdery desert sand warms his toes up, while, on top of his head, the Milky Way shines with the lights of his fifty birthday candles. A camel groans into the oasis while, in another tent, Zohra (and who knew her? But she paid part of the expenses for Less’ trip – money, money, money!) is still celebrating her birthday. The loud music breaks the silence, and Less sighs. 

He can’t help it – he really can’t- but his mind goes back to Freddy (it’s supposed to happen, he tells himself, after a break-up) and how he disliked his contemporaries. In her thirties, this woman is everything society is asking her to be and nothing of what she is supposed to be – she is loud and tasteless and raunchy like in some third class TV shows that’s too successful for its own good. 

He sips the champagne from his glass, carefully, slowly – this may very well be the last luxury he’ll allow himself in a while – wondering how he can be so alone when, just seven or eight feet from him, there’s a tent filled with people who’ve pretended to be his best friends in the last few days. 

He’s wearing his blue suit – he always does when he feels the need to be happy- and smiling into the night, all alone (he’s been feeling alone, lately, but not because Freddy’s getting married to someone else; no, it’s because he feels like he’s the first fifty years old gay man in the world) when a young Japanese man approaches him from behind. 

“I really don’t like people my own age!” The Japanese man laughs, a joyful and roundly mountain of colorful silks and small mirrors. “Mister Less? You are such a talented author. I _adored_ Kalipso.” The stranger continues to magnify the extraordinary work of the author who, unknowingly to the world, has just been dumped by his publisher . Because his writing was too gay.

The man doesn’t shout up, and Less looks at him – _really_ looks at him. He even thinks he may come to love a man like this. Not that it will matter in the long run. Arthur Less is a man filled to the brim with complexes, after all – and this handsome stranger and his flattery may very well be the cure he needs to forget his broken heart. 


End file.
